Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodimma, has insisted that he remains the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for Imo West Senatorial District, despite a court judgment recognising former governor Rochas Okorocha as the party’s flagbearer.
Speaking to worshippers after Sunday Mass at the Government House Chapel, Owerri, the governor told his supporters to disregard claims that he would lose the ticket.
“If they tell you that I will hold this ticket and somebody will collect it and give it to another, tell the person it is a lie,” he said.
NEWSNGR reports that Uzodimma charged residents to work for the APC in all the elections, ruling out any alliance with other parties.
“There is no other political party we are going with,” he declared.
He listed Patrick Ndubueze (Okigwe), himself (Orlu) and Alex Mbata (Owerri) as the party’s senatorial candidates in the state, and urged support for APC candidates in the state and federal legislative polls.
The governor’s comments followed a Federal High Court judgment in Abuja which ordered INEC to remove his name as the APC candidate and replace it with Okorocha’s.
Justice Obiora Egwuatu ruled that Okorocha won the May 18 primary and faulted INEC for accepting Uzodimma’s nomination despite “overwhelming documentary evidence that the governor did not win the primary.”
Okorocha had filed the suit in August to challenge INEC’s recognition of the governor.
Okorocha, governor from 2011 to 2019, hailed the judgment as a win for the people of Imo West and thanked President Bola Tinubu, saying the Presidency was no longer comfortable with the situation in the state.
He also praised the judiciary, saying the judgment showed that “justice is no longer for sale to the highest bidder.”
The state government has said it will appeal the ruling.
